You can't kill her, she's a girl.
Sunday, August 2, 2009 by shaf_sz
Elena Bertozzi's reading highlighted a few things about gender and digital game play that makes a lot of sense. Girls are starting to cross into this male dominated online world so it is worth a look at, because the girls didn't forget their 'social rights' and feminist ideologies, fellas!
Bertozzi had a particular point that really hit home with me. Bertozzi explains how females are seen as the 'weaker sex' irl (in real life, for all you non-nerds), and how this acceptance of females needing to be protected by males, and more importantly, for males never to be aggressive towards woman, leaps over into the online world from the real world. My question is, does this bring the good with the bad?
I play online games myself but casually. However, there are people that invest most of their day 'earning gold' or 'grinding' or 'pvping' (player versus player combat, in online role playing games). These people take gaming to the extreme and consider personal hygiene a joke. These gamers tend to be males from my experience, have a feeling of ownership, or a stronger sense of citizenship, to the online gaming world. So when we have a *gasp* female come and challenge them, in the form of the attention they get from other players, and their social status within a particular group, misogyny can rear it's ugly head.
An example from World of Warcraft:
"What the f**k, why did she get those boots, is it 'cause she's a girl?"
"Haha, look at that stupid newbie b*tch, she had no idea what to do and got owned".
We all like to believe we live in an egalitarian world, but in this sense, digital gaming makes it easy for the misogynist in every male to rear its ugly head. And the main reason? Anonymity. You can call a girl whatever you like online and there's no fear of retribution, the worst she can do is call you names back. I don't know about the girls out there, but that to me isn't very inviting.
Bertozzi had a particular point that really hit home with me. Bertozzi explains how females are seen as the 'weaker sex' irl (in real life, for all you non-nerds), and how this acceptance of females needing to be protected by males, and more importantly, for males never to be aggressive towards woman, leaps over into the online world from the real world. My question is, does this bring the good with the bad?
I play online games myself but casually. However, there are people that invest most of their day 'earning gold' or 'grinding' or 'pvping' (player versus player combat, in online role playing games). These people take gaming to the extreme and consider personal hygiene a joke. These gamers tend to be males from my experience, have a feeling of ownership, or a stronger sense of citizenship, to the online gaming world. So when we have a *gasp* female come and challenge them, in the form of the attention they get from other players, and their social status within a particular group, misogyny can rear it's ugly head.
An example from World of Warcraft:
"What the f**k, why did she get those boots, is it 'cause she's a girl?"
"Haha, look at that stupid newbie b*tch, she had no idea what to do and got owned".
We all like to believe we live in an egalitarian world, but in this sense, digital gaming makes it easy for the misogynist in every male to rear its ugly head. And the main reason? Anonymity. You can call a girl whatever you like online and there's no fear of retribution, the worst she can do is call you names back. I don't know about the girls out there, but that to me isn't very inviting.
Good to read your thoughts on this... but are you being ironic when you refer to "the misogynist in every male"? I reckon misogyny has complex and deep social roots but is not in any way a universal masculine trait...